Running discussion on SP, page-77809

https://kongopress.com/2023/07/04/cath-avz-usa-zambie-le-gouvernement-congolais-se-mele-t-il-les-pinceaux-dans-le-projet-batteries-au-lithium/

Has been translated using:
https://www.deepl.com/en/translator

CATH, AVZ, USA, Zambia: is the Congolese government muddling the waters in the lithium battery project?
By Kiki Kienge

Is the Congolese government meddling in the DRC's lithium battery manufacturing project?The Minister of Industry, Julien Paluku, has just visited the facilities of the world's leading battery producer, the Chinese giant CATL, in China:"Arriving this morning at the headquarters of CATL, the world's leading producer of electric batteries, the Congolese delegation I'm leading toured the technological facilities to get an idea of the factory to be developed in the DRC following the conclusions of the DRC-AFRICA BUSINESS FORUM in Nov 2021. It has taken 24 years to get there since 1999, with a view to supplying other European, Asian and American giants with the electric batteries needed for the energy transition." Julien Paluku.It should be noted that the DR Congo lithium to be used in battery production comes from Manono in Tanganyika province, where the government, through COMININIER, is in a joint venture (DATHCOM) with the Australians from AVZ MINERALS.

As a result of political cabals, the Kinshasa government, through its Ministry of Mines, has decided to cancel DATHCOM's operating permit, and would prefer to initiate collaboration with the Chinese company ZIJIN on the Manono lithium operation. Notably on a new basis and a new joint venture, of which the Chinese from ZIJIN claim 71% and the Congolese 29%...AVZ MINERALS does not accept this, given the contract signed with COMINIERE in 2017, and is planning to take legal action against the DR Congo, which wants to cancel the Australians' 75% stake in the DATHCOM joint venture, without putting forward any grounds for infringing the joint venture agreement.Even the local community of Manono does not look favorably on the arrival of the Chinese in the exploitation of its lithium, as evidenced by the latest statement by Mgr Vincent Kwanga, Catholic Bishop of Manono:

"For us, blocking this process with AVZ means they don't like us. If ZIJIN and COMINIERE lodge a complaint against AVZ, whereas in our opinion, it's rather AVZ that should lodge a complaint against our government, because they signed agreements that have not been respected, and that could lead us to international trade judgments. I don't know if our government won't spend billions of US dollars because of this contract they've just unilaterally broken."The Chinese group CATL, has a partnership agreement signed in 2021 with the Australians for the sale of 24% of AVZ MINERALS' shares in DATHCOM for US$240 million, for the development of the battery construction project in DR Congo with Zambia and the USA.Suzhou CATH Energy Technologies, a private investment entity jointly owned by CATL, invested US$240 million in cash to develop the Manono lithium-tin project with AVZ International Pty, a wholly-owned subsidiary of AVZ MINERALS.

It begs the question, when the Congolese government asks CATL to accompany it in a lithium battery development project in Manono, is it unaware that CATL is collaborating on the same project with the Australians from AVZ MINERALS, whose contract it wants to illegally break?What would CATL's Chinese strategy be, through CATH, to cancel the 24% agreement with AVZ and work with the Congolese government, or to demand that the Congolese government accept AVZ's participation and respect the DATHCOM contract, of which it would itself own 24% through the sale of the Australians' shares?In the midst of all this political and economic cacophony, the people of Manono are waiting for the development of the Tanganyika province and the jobs promised by the current government.

My sentiment is upgraded from 'Hold' to 'Buy' (off market, of course),
Cheers